Reddit reviews Ergo Chef Chef's Gear Knife Roll Bag, 13 Pocket

Honestly, depending on the person, the job, and how much stuff they actually carry back and forth with them, knife rolls can be very personal things to shop for. You may find a nice roll that holds 12 knives, then they may end up taking a lot of smaller tools that don't fit in the knife spots. You may find a roll that has a zippered area for smaller tools, only to discover that they only take 6 knives and a peeler to work with them, and have no need for a zippered pouch.

You could go with an ultra-basic model, and it could be fine; it's utilitarian, and gets the job done. In my school, most people ended up going with a bag like this, because it had a pocketed area for smaller tools like thermometers, pens, bandaids, and other things. I still have mine somewhere in the basement, and it's a good bag. Personally, I usually take a lot of stuff to work with me, and I wanted a larger bag to be able to hold everything, so I started looking at bags like this, which are massive, and have 4 areas to hold all sorts of things. A week after I started looking at them online, I actually got lucky enough to find one in a thrift store for $3, so I couldn't pass that up.

For myself, because the tools I take to work varies, based on the menu cycle we may be in, or the work I expect to possibly need to do, and because some of the things I take a little too bulky for a regular knife roll, I prefer not to use an actual knife roll. I've switched over to using something like a small duffle bag, and it works just fine for me.

What I might suggest is to see if you have a restaurant supply store near you, or some place that sells cutlery that has a large selection of chef's knives, because those places might have knife rolls. If it's possible that you find a local place that has a few different types/styles of knife rolls, maybe you could take him there, and ask him to pick his own knife roll, since he knows what he would plan to put in it.

Any of the ones that I've linked to would be a half way decent starter knife pouch (except for maybe the huge one), and over time, he'll most likely upgrade to something else.

Something else that you might want to seriously consider, if he doesn't already have something like this, is maybe getting him a set of blade guards to go with the knife bag. It'll help protect the knife edges, and his fingers, while they're still in the bag.

Whatever you settle on, good luck.

i love my backpack! that said, i got through culinary school on something like this, and once i started to expand my kit a bit, i got one of these, which i also love. the second is a bit bulky, though. best for carrying everything you need, like if you're doing some offsite catering or something like that.

edit: my backpack is what i use everyday now, though.

I personally love my Macs, ive got an 8 year old 8 inch thats been my daily workhorse for the past 4 years, and a 7 1/4in that i picked up for $60 to replace it. I prefer the smaller knife for precision work, and the handling on it is spectacular in my opinion. Well worth the money, i think. I have a Shun elite 8in, and i find that the weight of it can get fairly annoying after a while, which is why i love the light weight of my Macs.
As for the filet knife, ive had both the victorinox and the henkels equivalent (yellow handled one), and found that after a few butchery jobs, the blades really went out quickly. I ended getting a global after using a co workers for a while, and have been really impressed with how well it handles, as well as how long it holds an edge for. I picked up the 6 1/4 inch flexible for about $70, and its been great.
For sharpening stones, id start out with a Messermeister 400/1000 double sided stone. At $20, it fits the budget for a first stone, and its what i teach a lot of my cooks on.
As for a knife roll, Messermeister is definitely a good brand to go with, but id reccomend getting more than 5 pockets. When i was starting out, i grabbed a 8 pocket shun bag because it was the only one the shop had at the time, and i was amazed at how fast i was able to fill it up. I keep more than knives in the pockets; microplane, peeler, thermopen, steel, oyster knife, etc. Just something to consider.
Here are the links to my reccomendations, if you feel like checking them out:
Mac 7 1/4in
http://www.amazon.com/Mac-Knife-Series-Chefs-4-Inch/dp/B000N5BUWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405661045&sr=8-1&keywords=mac+knife
Global Filet 6 1/4in
http://www.amazon.com/Global-G-21-Flexible-Boning-Knife/dp/B00005OL41/ref=pd_sim_k_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XMAX8VN0AQVN18NZWYB
Messermeister Stone:
http://www.amazon.com/Messermeister-Two-Sided-Sharpening-Stone-1000/dp/B003JV3TEQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1405660753&sr=1-1&keywords=messermeister+sharpening+stone
No name 13 pocket bag:
http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Hard-Tri-Fold-Knife-Bag/dp/B004BN1C5E/ref=lp_13840871_1_20?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1405660955&sr=1-20

All in, thatll set you back about $190, which isnt too bad for what i think are the beginnings of a good kit.